Sleepy Head

He fell asleep in the car.

That was last week after a hysterical fit from being over tired.

 The fits had become commonplace.

He would not go to sleep without one.

We were in a bumpy patch, but alas, we are now out of it!

Prior to the phase of screaming his head off before falling asleep, he used to be able to sleep anywhere. Here is sleeping on the ottoman at my parents' house.

I've always rocked him to sleep.
I don't want to let him "cry it out"...
Not only have I read of the negative effects of CIO (increased heart rate and blood pressure, reduced oxygen levels, elevated cerebral pressure, depleted energy reserves, brain injury, and cardiac dysfunction- as described here), but I simply want my baby to know that I am there for him. Sure, sometimes he cries, sometimes he screams, but I will not lay him down and leave the room, hoping he'll fall asleep.

For starters, he won't fall asleep- he will either keep crying, getting more and more hysterical to the point of being out of control, then calm down, and then look around and just hang out. Besides, I do not believe that a baby should "know how to put himself to sleep" or whatever people say. He's just a baby. I will help him fall asleep and as his mother,  I am happy to do that.

So, if he gets to the point where he's crying crazy-style, I am not going to leave him. However, sometimes I get physically worn out from holding him, so I lay him down and just lay with him, holding his hand or rubbing his belly or head letting him know I am there. Usually he will stop crying after a minute or two and then I can rock him to sleep. 

(sorry for the extremely nasty picture of myself!!)

But lately, he hasn't been screaming at all. Or even really crying.
Naptimes are great- I take him up to his room and rock him (while standing, like in the pic) and he falls asleep. I lay him down in his crib and he snoozes away. (By the way- SIDS or no SIDS, he will wake right up if I put him on his back, so it's belly-sleeping for this babe).

At night, we have a great routine that we've been doing since he was born, however now the screaming part is gone. Thankfully it only lasted about a month (his fourth month):
Daddy reads a story
Mommy reads a Bible story
Prayers
Nurse
Rock (this is when the screaming would ensue)
And then...I lay him down on our bed until we come up to sleep with him (we bedshare).
This whole week has been great- a whole week of no screaming/crying.

And I believe it's because we made it through those rough few weeks learning a few things:

1. When he is tired, start the routine, don't wait until he's crying because he's overtired.
2. If parts of the routine need rushing, that's okay- if he's tired, we need to skip to the nursing and rocking and call it a night.
3. He needs to fuss a bit, and writhe his body like a crazy person (!) and then soon he will go limp and fall asleep.
4. By letting him cry with me by his side, he knows I am there and not going to leave him when he is most upset.
5. This one has turned out to be crucial-- if he is tired, we need to go home. This week I have chosen to leave family get-togethers, MOPS, friends' houses, the library, and more because I knew we needed to go home and let him nap. Putting his sleep needs above my own schedule has really made this week so great- for all of us!
6. He did not need to learn how to go to sleep by himself, he needed us to teach him how to go to sleep.

 

And guess what? I don't mind. I'm happy to rock my baby to sleep.

I love that special time we have before each nap and before bedtime at night. 

Of course I can't predict how long it's going to last, but I do feel that since he's "grown up" a bit this month (he's now 5 months old, how did that happen!?!?!?) that maybe we have begun a new habit that will last. 

We'll see!

I'm just thrilled that bedtime is now not something to be dreaded (or something that's going to take an hour or more), but that we've got our routine down and he knows what to do: sleep.